1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to an operating apparatus and operating control method of a side step of a vehicle and, more particularly, to an operating apparatus and operating control method of a side step of a vehicle which can control the opening operation of the side step according to whether an obstacle is present or not in the opening direction of the side step.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally, a side step is provided in an RV (Recreational Vehicle), the bottom of which is higher than those of typical passenger vehicles, such as sedans, in an effort to realize passenger's convenience when getting into or out of the vehicle. In the related art, the side step may be designed as a fixed side step 1 that is simply fixed to a side seal outer panel 2 of a vehicle frame, as shown in FIG. 1, or as an retractable side step 3 that can be automatically opened or closed relative to a vehicle frame 4 using a mechanism, as shown in FIGS. 2A to 2D.
The retractable side step 3 of FIGS. 2A to 2D is configured such that it can be opened from a closed state through a sequential opening process comprising outward extending from the vehicle frame, rotating and descending.
The retractable side step 3 is configured such that the opening of the retractable side step 3 is operated regardless of whether an obstacle is present or not in proximity to the side step 3. When the side step 3 collides with an obstacle, the operation of the side step 3 may be stopped or the control process of the side step 3 may be initialized to the closed state.
Described in brief, the retractable side step 3 is provided with no function of preventing a collision of the side step with an obstacle when the side step is opened. Thus, the art retractable side step 3 is problematic in that, when being operated, obstacles may cause a breakage of the drive unit and breakage of the side step.
The information disclosed in this Background of the Invention section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.